


Dogs Bring Death, Unless They're Yours

by HoneyBeeez



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Black Dog, M/M, Shapeshifters - Freeform, cunning folk, kyoutani likes scaring people what can i say, oikawa and iwaizumi are kids in this and boy were they fun to write, shapeshifter!kyoutani, yahaba can basically do magic but its... very limited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 17:10:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17964653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoneyBeeez/pseuds/HoneyBeeez
Summary: hi everyone!! its been a while and im sorry about that lolanyways, this is something i had the incredible honor to write for Divine, a Haikyuu!! mythology zine! I based this story off the English myths of the cunning folk and the black dog! feel free to check out the other pieces within the zine, theyre all incredible and totally worth it!





	Dogs Bring Death, Unless They're Yours

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!! its been a while and im sorry about that lol  
> anyways, this is something i had the incredible honor to write for Divine, a Haikyuu!! mythology zine! I based this story off the English myths of the cunning folk and the black dog! feel free to check out the other pieces within the zine, theyre all incredible and totally worth it!

The kids are already outside Shigeru’s door by the time he eases it open in the morning. They scramble from where they sat in the road, getting to their feet and nearly stumbling as they make their way towards Shigeru.

“Your parents are going to get worried about where you’re disappearing to all day, you know,” Shigeru says, chuckling at the two of them as they cling to his cloak. They turn their faces up and the soft smile on Shigeru’s face vanishes, because their usually bright, mischievous grins are gone from their faces, replaced with watery eyes and worried pouts. “What’s wrong?”

“Yaha-Yahaba…” one of them whines, tears threatening to spill from his brown eyes. Whatever else the boy has to say is choked by a sob. The other boy clings to him tighter.

“Alright, alright, calm down,” Shigeru says, trying to be as reassuring as he can. He puts a hand on their backs and leads them inside.

The stoic, olive-eyed boy sits in the wooden chair he occupies when they come over, his hands clenched into fists in his lap. The brown-eyed boy doesn’t let go of his cloak, instead shifting his hold so that he’s hugging Shigeru’s leg. Shigeru can hear each shuddering breath he pulls in.

“What happened?” he asks gently, his eyes shifting between the two boys. The brown-eyed boy blubbers something unintelligible.

“We saw the bl-black dog,” the olive-eyed boy says, his voice wavering with the weight of the words. Shigeru’s body feels as though it freezes over.

“Where?” Shigeru asks, easing the brown-eyed boy into the chair opposite the other boy and hurrying to close his door. If customers walked in now, it would be… unfavorable.

“Be-Behind my mother!” the brown-eyed boy manages to say before burying his face in his hands. “Sh-She was collecting herbs, and we were going’t scare her, and- and…” the boy can’t say more, his tears dissolving him into hysterics. Shigeru kneels in front of the boy’s chair, gathering him in his arms and rubbing small circles onto his back.

“It’s alright, it’ll be alright,” Shigeru soothes, even though he doesn’t believe it, himself.

“Is she gonna die?” the olive-eyed boy questions, causing Shigeru to look up at him. He has tears in his eyes, too, though he refuses to let them fall. “Are  _we_ gonna die?” There’s panic there, Shigeru knows the kind, even though it isn’t as often that someone requests something from him with it laced in their words. At most, he’s divining to find some old lady’s cane.

“Hajime,” Shigeru says, trying not to sound pitying, but not helping the way he coos the boy’s name, either, “you’re not going to die, no one is. Not if I can help it,” Shigeru says resolutely, shifting his hands so that he’s guiding the other boy’s face up to look at him. “You hear, Tooru? No one’s going to die. It’ll be okay.”

“What… what’ll…” Tooru sniffles, his face still in Shigeru’s hands, and Shigeru gives him a hopeful smile before the boy can continue.

“How would you boys like to help me?”

Getting the boys’ minds off things is a lot easier than getting them to calm down, Shigeru realizes. The two are usually in his shop, attached at the hip as they peruse his shelves, smelling different jars of herbs and tossing about his spools of thread, but now, they were going to be a part of the magic. And that, Shigeru guesses, makes all the difference.

Shigeru rifles around on his shelves until he finds two small, unused glass flasks. He dusts them off with the sleeve of his cloak before turning towards the boys, who were at his heels eagerly. Shigeru holds out the flasks and the boys take them up immediately.

“Keep track of your flask,” Shigeru says, wagging a finger at them. He’s pretty sure they don’t hear him, with the way their turning over the glasses like they were looking for magical sigils. So, Shigeru clears his throat and continues: “If you mix them up, you might create a curse  _worse_  than the black dog’s.”

The boys look up then, almost at the same time. Shigeru holds back a smile.

“What’re these for?” Hajime asks, glancing at his flask once more before returning his gaze to Shigeru.

“Yeah, are we gonna catch fairies?” Tooru pipes, lifting his flask to his face, the mouth of it to his eye so he was looking through it. “Oh, or maybe, are we gonna use these to find the black dog’s spirit and trap him inside? Or as we gonna break ‘em and use the glass to see the future–?”

“Yahaba wouldn’t let us do any of that stuff,” Hajime says, pouting a bit as he says it. Tooru deflates at the admission, just a bit.

“You’re right, that stuff is  _way_  too risky for you two,” Shigeru says matter-of-factly. “ _This_  kind of curse-breaking, though, I’m sure you can do perfectly.”

“We’re breaking the curse…?” Tooru questions.

“With these?” Hajime echoes, sounding for all the world like he was finishing Tooru’s question. Shigeru wouldn’t be completely surprised if he was.

“Of course,” Shigeru replies, smiling at them once more. It’s a small lie, of course, because one can’t just  _will away_  the black dog’s curse, but making witch bottles  _will_  break the curse… of fear, maybe, but still a curse.

As the boys gaze wide-eyed in amazement at their bottles, a small knock comes from Shigeru’s door. Without so much as a word, Shigeru gathers two small paring knives from his shelves and ushers the boys farther into the building, sitting them down next to the unlit fireplace.

“You need to be very careful,” Shigeru says in the most stern voice he can muster. The boys nod slowly before Shigeru hands them each a knife. “Trim your nails and put them into the flasks. If you cut yourself, hold it over the flask. Got it?”

“Got it!” they echo back.

“Good,” Shigeru sighs, ruffling their hair. “I’ve got to help people, now, but if you need to pee, use your flasks, too.”

Hajime giggles at the instruction while Tooru grimaces.

When Shigeru opens his door once more, he pulls on a polite smile and greets the old lady that stands there. She lives down the road, not too far from Shigeru, and visits him for the littlest of things. Sure, she always pays and pays well, but Shigeru knows he could be focusing his practice onto more pressing issues other than lost knick-knacks and divining to see what crops would grow the best this season.

The old lady talks, and Shigeru lets her, because he knows she probably doesn’t have anyone else that will. He checks over his shoulder from time to time, seeing Hajime and Tooru in deep concentration as they carefully cut their nails and put them into their flasks, their voices low and fear dampened.

As the old lady leaves, Shigeru turns to see the boys holding their flasks at arm’s length, their noses wrinkled paired with toothy grins and sloshing liquid contained by the glass.

“I thought you boys weren’t really going to do it,” Shigeru says, shaking his head as he makes his way to his shelves.

“I have’ta protect my mom,” Tooru says, the mischievous grin gone from his face as it shifts to something a bit more contemplative. “Is this…” he asks hesitantly, looking at his flask, “really gonna help?”

“Bring them here,” Shigeru says, plucking a jar of dried rosemary from his herb collection and beckoning the boys closer. “These bottles,” Shigeru starts, getting on one knee before the boys, “capture any curses or spells that have been put on you or anyone in your household.” Slowly, Shigeru takes pinches of rosemary, crushing it in between his fingers as he sprinkles them into each flask. “You’ll finish assembling them before sunset and I’ll stopper them before you head home.” He caps the jar and puts it back with his herbs. “When you get home, you have to hide the bottle as well as you can, and as quick as you can, that way the Black Dog can’t find it  _or_ come back, alright?”

The boys nod solemnly, eyes sparkling with determination, as another knock sounds on Shigeru’s door.

“Just a moment!” Shigeru calls, turning towards the door as he does so, before shifting his attention back to the boys. He shoos them to the back of his shop, where they wait patiently as he finds a box filled with needles and nails. Shigeru puts the box between the boys and kneels to their level.

“Pick as many of these as you like and add them to your flask,” he says, looking at them both. “Just make sure you ask it to help protect you before you add it. You’ll feel it if it’s right.”

Hajime’s and Tooru’s eyes  _sparkle_ , their fingers already wiggling the box open and wrapping carefully around the pieces of metal.

It’s an unusually busy day for Shigeru but it’s not unpleasant, to say the least, but none of it is a priority. His mind is filled with everything he knows about the Black Dog, the image practically flooding behind his eyes as two young girls asked sheepishly for palm readings and, later, as a man asked for a curse to put on his contract holder.

From what Shigeru remembers from his uncle’s teachings, omens can’t be reversed, since they weren’t grounded in what humans could see or understand. The Black Dog was even trickier, though. Ensuring the village’s safety (Hajime, Tooru, and Tooru’s mother, to be more precise) and keeping the Black Dog away will be… challenging, at best. Maybe disastrous, at worst.

Still, he has to try. He made a promise, after all.

As the sun sets in a brilliant cascade of oranges, reds, and pinks, Shigeru corks the flasks and dips the bottlenecks into melted wax, sealing them. Hajime and Tooru blow on the wax impatiently. Shigeru can feel the worry flowing off them like heat from a flame.

“Remember: hide these as well as you can when you get home,” Shigeru says, running a hand through each of their hair. Hajime smiles smallishly at the touch, while Tooru shakes it away. “And come visit me tomorrow, if you’d like,” Shigeru adds, hoping the promise of tomorrow is enough to get them to smile. They nod in response, and Shigeru thinks that’s more than enough.

He watches them disappear down the road, making sure they at least got halfway home, and he thinks a smidge of their worry rubbed off onto him. Of course they would be fine.

Shigeru uses the time before the sun fully sets to get something to eat and check his second-hand grimoire for any information he might have missed. The last of the loaf of bread he has is slightly stale, but he guesses it’s better than mold. The grimoire, from his uncle, is flimsy in his hands from overuse, the ink smudged in parts, leaving it mostly legible. As he pours over the pages, he realizes it doesn’t tell him anything he doesn’t already know.

Hunting down the Black Dog was going to be harder than he thought. Maybe he’ll be able to make a new entry for the grimoire. If he survives, that is.

Shigeru draws his cloak’s hood up and starts down the road.

The Oikawa house is on the other side of the village, its modest fields stretching towards the woods nearby. The road leading to the smallish household is rough, but it’s silent like the rest of the village, so much so that it’s almost deafening.

Shigeru feels idiotic as the minutes pass, the darkness getting more intense, and he berates himself for not bringing a lantern. He can’t help but shudder at his own lack of forethought.

He ventures around the back of the house, finding the plot of land Tooru’s mother cultivates, and he’s careful to not step on the small tufts of herbs and root vegetables.

The boys _did_ say that they saw the Black Dog around here. Were the odds of it showing up again?

Shigeru stoops down as he passes the Oikawa’s plot and pulls out a piece of meat from his pouch. He bends it in his hands, the motion like he was wringing it out of nervousness. The scent fills his nose and faintly wafts in the air around him.

If something is hungry nearby, Shigeru hopes its curiosity gets the best of it.

Shigeru takes a deep breath, gathering all the courage he has within him, and crosses into the densely-packed forest. He waves the piece of meat in his hand in front of him as he goes, letting the scent travel and avoiding trees as he does so.

There’s mostly silence as Shigeru delves deeper into the woods. Debris rustles underneath his feet. An owl hoots somewhere above his head. Shigeru feels naive for trying to hunt down an omen of death. A lump forms in his throat at his own embarrassment.

Convinced of his stupidity, Shigeru turns on his heel, ready to head back to the village, and he sees a pair of huge, glowing, golden eyes just yards behind him. Shigeru reels back at the shock, losing his footing and careening to the forest floor.

The eyes get bigger, closer, locked on him all the while, and somewhere deep inside Shigeru, he _knows_ this is the Black Dog.

The Dog gets close enough for Shigeru to feel each panting breath reverberate in his ears. Shigeru shudders, but his body too gripped with fear to move. It’s only until the Black Dog is looming directly above him that Shigeru finds his voice.

“L-leave this village alone,” he manages to force through his teeth. A deep, menacing growl rumbles in the Dog’s chest, loud enough for Shigeru to feel it in his core. “They’re g-good people and I swore to protect them with everything in my power!” he exclaims, biting his tongue as soon as the words leave his mouth.

Who does he think he is, arguing with an omen of death who could will him to die on a whim? He wants the forest floor to swallow him whole.

Mortified, Shigeru barely notices the Dog’s growl ceasing, snapping back to attention as it gingerly steps over Shigeru to jut its snout at his closed fist. Its nose is wet as it nudges Shigeru’s fingers open, revealing the piece of meat Shigeru held. Its teeth barely scrape his palm as it snatches the meat away.

The Black Dog wanders a couple steps away before settling onto the ground. It gnaws at the meat in earnest, completely ignoring Shigeru. Fear-struck and confused, Shigeru watches the dark figure for a second longer, pushing himself to sit when he’s sure the animal won’t attack him.

The figure looks too content for it to be the harbinger of tragedy. In fact, Shigeru is certain that the Black Dog is solely a spiritual entity; it shouldn’t have been able to take the meat from him, if his grimoire is correct.

“You’re… not the Black Dog, are you?” Shigeru manages to ask. The figure snaps to attention, its golden eyes piercing him like he was nothing but a patch of air. For a second, Shigeru thinks it’s going to charge him, but then it turns its head and huffs. Shigeru _swears_ it sounds like a laugh.

His heart sinks, because this _isn’t_ the Black Dog and confronting it would do nothing to nullify the omen’s implications on Tooru and Hajime, if confronting it would do that at all. But then his mind races, because if _this_ beast is here, then it’s possible that it was here yesterday, meaning that the boys _didn’t_ see the omen after all. Shigeru can’t help but feel hopeful at the prospect.

Without anything else to eat, the dog gets to its feet and turns tail, making its way deeper into the woods.

“Wait!” Shigeru yells before it goes too far. He scrambles to his feet as he opens his rucksack, pulling out the rest of his cured meat. When Shigeru looks towards the beast, its golden eyes are trained on him once more.

He hopes the dog is just as intelligent as it been acting.

“You’re hungry, right? Come back tomorrow, and I’ll bring more.” He tosses the meat in its direction, the pieces skittering to a halt by the dog’s hind legs. “Just don’t let the villagers see you. They’ll worry themselves to death.”

The dog growls once more, indignant, and Shigeru takes a step backwards.

“It’s a small favor to ask if you want to eat,” he justifies. “Tomorrow, okay? I’ll take my leave, now.”

He’s cautious for the first couple steps before he hears the dog gnawing at the meat he’s left behind. Out of harm’s way, Shigeru’s heart thuds loudly in his chest, the rhythm erratic as he stumbles out of the forest and through the village.

They could all be safe, or they never stood a chance, no matter what little help Shigeru’s offered. Shigeru thinks of the boys’ terrified faces and the worry etched on their young brows. He thinks about golden eyes and huffing laughs in the darkness. He thinks of tomorrow and the differences between what could be and what would be. The outcomes are too different, too frightening.

Shigeru barely makes it upstairs to his tiny room above his shop before he sinks to the floor, asleep.

* * *

 

The sun is already up when Shigeru comes to. It takes a sleepy moment for him to remember the night before, but when he does, he’s on his feet in an instant.

He stumbles down the stairs and through his shop, flipping the lock as quick as his fumbling fingers could before yanking the door open. Shigeru holds his breath as he steps outside, terrified of not seeing Hajime and Tooru waiting for him, but--

“Yahaba!” the boys shout. Shigeru is almost swept away as they hug him around his waist. Their warmth brings tears to his eyes.

“You two,” he says, wrapping his arms around them in return, “did amazingly well with your witch bottles. I’m so proud of you.”

“Yahaba, are you crying?” Hajime asks, pulling away to give him a quizzical glance.

“Don’t cry!” Tooru exclaims immediately, clutching onto Shigeru tighter.

“I’m not crying,” Shigeru says, rubbing at the corners of his eyes. “I’ve just woken up, is all. I was going to check on you two first thing.” They look the slightest bit convinced by his answer. “Tooru,” Shigeru says, turning towards the brown-haired boy, “is your mother alright?”

The boy’s nodding before the question fully gets off Shigeru’s lips. “She’s okay! We made sure of it this morning!”

“Good,” Shigeru replies, relieved. “Just make sure to be careful for the next couple days, and that your witch bottles aren’t found. They should keep protecting you as long as their hidden.”

The boys nod.

“Thank you,” Hajime says quietly.

“Yeah! Thank you so much!” Tooru echoes, hopping on the balls of his feet excitedly.

“Anytime,” Shigeru says easily. “It’s what I’m here for, after all.” The phrase, however vague, reminds him of his declaration to what he thought was the Black Dog about protecting the people. It makes his ears burn, but it also reminds him of his promise.

“How would you two like to come to the market with me?”

* * *

 

Hajime and Tooru cling to his cloak as they squeeze their way through the crowded market streets. They don’t seem to mind, either, when Shigeru’s stopped by one villager or another with words of greeting or questions on their lips. Shigeru grins and bears it, all the while thinking about what is needed back at his shop or in his rucksack.

The sun’s high in the sky by the time they return to Shigeru’s shop, arms laden with dried herbs, two loaves of bread, and the biggest cut of cured beef Shigeru could find. He gives the boys thin slices of the bread and meat before putting the rest away upstairs.

The rest of the day is, thankfully, uneventful. An old lady stops by for a quick chat and a couple people trickle in for a palm reading but, other than that, Shigeru is free to indulge Hajime and Tooru, letting them fiddle with some magical trinkets and answering the questions they ask.

Shigeru sends the boys home as the sun sets, and they leave with a lightness in their steps that nearly makes Shigeru tear up.

He hates thinking about what could have happened if he was wrong, if they _had_ seen the Black Dog, if the dog he had met in the woods had nothing to do with the incident…

But they were safe now, and the dog seemed to be just that, _a dog_ … and he’s to meet it tonight, too. It’s better to be prepared.

Shigeru carves off a larger portion of the meat he bought and fits it into his rucksack along with some bread. Then, he rummages around his room until he finds a lantern tucked away in his cluttered closet. He replaces the candle inside, lights it, and makes his way to the woods.

He treks to the edge of the village and gives the Oikawa residence a wide berth as he circles it for reference. Slipping into the woods is easier now with the light, and Shigeru feels stupid yet again for forgetting the lantern the night before. He shakes the thought off as he passes tree after identical-looking tree, hoping he’s treading the same path he did before.

If he thinks about it, having a rendezvous with a random dog in the middle of the woods at night wasn’t the… smartest thing he’s ever done. He tries not to think of all the ways that this could go wrong before he trips over an exposed tree root.

The yelp that comes from Shigeru’s lips is more than embarrassing. In all his flailing, he catches a snatch of movement to the left of him before he steadies his footing. His heart hammers in his chest as he turns towards the movement, lantern held firmly in his hand.

There’s something there, no doubt. It looks like a black mass at the foot of a tree before it brings itself to its feet and walks towards the light of the lantern.

“Fuck, ‘s ‘bout time,” the figure mumbles, and Shigeru’s jaw slackens. There’s a man in front of him, wearing only a dark cloak pulled tightly around himself, with blonde hair and two brown stripes above his ears. “Was startin’ to think you weren’t gonna show,” the man continues, giving Shigeru a wry smirk.

“Ex-excuse me?” Shigeru manages to say, taking a wary step backwards. His mind is _whirling_ , searching for an explanation that Shigeru doesn’t think he has.

“You’re the one who told me to be here,” the man says, jutting his chin out with the accusation. Shigeru feels an uncomfortable lump form in his throat. “How stupid do you have to be to invite what you thought was the Black Dog to stick around?”

“How do you--?” Shigeru starts, before the man’s words finally sink in. His eyes widen and his grip on the lantern tightens. “You’re the… You’re a shapeshifter?”

“Took ya long enough to figure that out,” the man scoffs, folding his arms across his chest. “How a whole village relies on you for protection is _beyond_ me.”

“Hey!”

“You got food or what? I’m starvin’,” the man says, levelling him an intense glare. Shigeru can almost see where the man’s fingers cling to his cloak a bit tighter.

He’s _anxious_ about this, Shigeru realizes. He wonders how long its been since the shapeshifter talked to someone, let alone accepted anything from them.

“I don’t like your attitude,” Shigeru says, keeping his voice steady.

“ _What?_ ” the man seethes, surging forward, fists clenched at his sides.

“You’ve done _nothing_ but antagonize me since I got here,” Shigeru defends, standing his ground even as the man bares his teeth. “I’m trying my best for this village and you don’t have to recognize that but, if you want something from me, you should try being a little nicer.”

There’s a crackle of silence between them, their eyes locked like if one of them blinked, the world will splinter apart. The man breaks first, his shoulders dropping as he folds his arms over his chest once more.

“You’re not as spineless as I thought,” he sighs.

“I’ll take that as an apology,” Shigeru says before pulling the hunk of meat from his rucksack. The man lets out a snort of laughter. “I was expecting a dog,” Shigeru defends, holding the meat out with his free hand.

“Sorry to disappoint,” the man says as he snatches the meat away. He pulls a small knife from the pocket of his cloak and slices a piece off easily. He settles himself at the base of a tree as he stuffs his face unceremoniously, like Shigeru vanished altogether.

Shigeru doesn’t exactly know what to do after that. There’s _tons_ of questions he wants to ask the shapeshifter, the first thing being why he went around masquerading as _the Black Dog_ , but the silence between them is suffocating. Instead, Shigeru leans against a nearby tree, leaving the lantern by his feet as he pulls some bread from his rucksack. He tries his best not to look at the man as he pulls the bread into pieces and pops them into his mouth.

When he feels the shapeshifter’s gaze settle on him, Shigeru speaks.

“What’s your name?”

“ _What?_ ”

“Your name. You have one, don’t you?”

“If I did, why the fuck would you want to know it?”

Shigeru shrugs, picking up his lantern. The man eyes him, irritated and curious. “Tell you what: you tell me your name, and I’ll come back here tomorrow with more food.”

“I’m not that desperate,” the man growls, appalled by the proposal.

“It worked last time,” Shigeru says, shrugging again, already making his way towards the village.

Shigeru takes a couple steps in silence before he hears an exasperated voice declare, “It’s Kyoutani!”

“See you tomorrow, Kyoutani!” he chirps back, a smile tugging at his lips.

* * *

 

The next couple days are spent in his shop, Hajime and Tooru bright and happy as they continue to come by day after day. And the next couple nights are spent trekking a subtle path into the woods, meeting with Kyoutani to give him food and trying to hold a conversation. He doesn’t get much out of the shifter; the most Kyoutani lets slip is that he’s been wandering the country for months before Shigeru stopped him.

But, at least he can say that there’s less insults thrown his way, but not by much.

The routine is broken, however, when Shigeru shows up to their little clearing, only to find Kyoutani missing. He waits until his lantern’s candle is almost burnt out before going back home.

When Shigeru wakes up the next morning and opens the door to his shop, he finds a hulking black dog collapsed on his doorstep.

He kneels next to it immediately because he _knows_ it’s Kyoutani. Up close, he tracks the labored movements of the dog’s chest and meets its golden gaze. For a moment, Shigeru thinks there’s something like pleading in Kyoutani’s eyes.

“I got you,” Shigeru says, unconsciously petting his head, “it’ll be okay.” He doesn’t know if he says it for Kyoutani or for himself.

He steadies himself before slipping his arms underneath the dog’s shoulders and hind legs and carrying him into the shop.

Kyoutani yelps as Shigeru settles him onto the ground. Shigeru jerks at the sound, worried, until he feels a warmth that makes the front of his tunic cling to his chest. Kyoutani whines a bit as Shigeru looks down at himself, finding the blood that stains his clothing.

“Oh gods,” Shigeru huffs, kneeling next to Kyoutani once more. His hands brush at the blood-matted fur on Kyoutani’s side, finding a series of lacerations that are still oozing. Kyoutani growls, a warning for Shigeru to do something about it _or else_.

Shigeru doesn’t know much about treating injuries like this, but he figures it can’t be more complicated than fixing a broken seam. A seam that bleeds. Right, the blood, he’s bleeding, that’s probably not best.

He shucks off his cloak before pulling his tunic over his head, pressing it to Kyoutani’s side in an instant. The dog yelps in pain once more, the sound devolving into an irritated growl.

“I know, I’m sorry, just give me…”

“Y-Yahaba?” a high-pitched voice calls, filled with worry. Shigeru whips around, hoping that it isn’t who it sounds like, but Hajime and Tooru are standing at his door anyways, shock and dismay written on their small, wide-eyed faces.

“It’s not what it looks like!” Shigeru says, panicked, knowing that the boys are probably spooked by seeing the Black Dog again, only this time with the man who swore to help them. “I’ll explain in a moment, you have to trust me! But for now I need your help. _Please_.”

He must have sounded every bit as desperate as he feels, because the boys hurry into the shop, even taking care to shut the door behind them. They don’t come much closer to where Kyoutani lies, but Shigeru understands. To them, dogs mean death, after all.

“Wha-what do you need us to do?” Hajime prompts, looking worriedly between Shigeru and the dog, but his shoulders are squared with determination.

“Tooru, I need you to go upstairs are get some water and rum. They’re in jars by the window,” Shigeru says. Even before the words fully come out of his mouth, Tooru is darting up the stairs. “Hajime, I need you to get a needle and some thread from the shelves,” he follows up, and the boy nods before hurrying off.

Shigeru turns his attention back to Kyoutani, whose breathing has become more erratic. He pets at his head and mutters “everything’ll be okay” more times that he can count before Hajime is poking his shoulder and handing him the supplies and Tooru is nearly tripping down the stairs, jars in hand.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Shigeru mutters, hoping for the best as he removes his tunic from the gashes. The cloth is covered in blood, but at least he can see the injuries clearly now. He grabs for the jar of rum, balling the tunic up and plunging it into the alcohol and waiting a second before removing it.

“This might hurt and I’m sorry,” Shigeru warns, before pressing the alcohol-soaked cloth to the open flesh at Kyoutani’s side. The whine that escapes the shifter’s muzzle is heartbreaking, his paws scrabbling quickly at the ground as he tries to move away, but he’s too weak to do so. “I know, I’m sorry, just a little more,” Shigeru pleads, barely aware of the words out of his mouth as he dabs the cloth as gently as possible across the wounds.

When he’s finished, he dips the needle into the rum as well, his fingers shaking as he threads it, before plunging the needle into Kyoutani’s broken flesh. The shifter is never quiet, alternating between whining and growling as Shigeru stitches him up, but he tries his best to keep still anyways.

The stitches turn out a bit gnarled, but there’s no more blood seeping from Kyoutani’s skin. Shigeru takes the water and pours it over the closed wounds for good measure, soaking the floor and Kyoutani’s matted fur as well. For a moment, Shigeru watches the stuttering rise and fall of Kyoutani’s chest until it falls into a calmer rhythm, before sagging back onto his heels.

“Is…” Tooru asks, leaning a bit closer to Shigeru. “Is it gonna be okay?”

“He’ll be fine, I think. It’ll take more than that to kill him,” Shigeru says fondly, and he smiles at the way the shifter’s tail thumps weakly at the near-praise.

“That’s the Black Dog, isn’t it?” Hajime asks, shaken. Shigeru can’t exactly blame him.

“It’s not,” Shigeru answers.

“Then what is it?” Hajime demands, frowning as his glare shifts between the dog and Shigeru. Tooru tries to say something, but Hajime cuts him off as he continues. “This is the _thing_ we saw, Tooru! What if we _die_ because he helped it? What if your mom—?”

“ _I trust Yahaba!_ ” Tooru exclaims, stamping his foot like the words alone weren’t enough. “He helped us when we didn’t know what to do, he teaches us about stuff no one else knows…” Tooru shakes his head, scrunching his eyes closed before he looks back at Hajime. “Yahaba’s strong and brave and wouldn’t put us in danger.”

“I wouldn’t,” Shigeru says. He looks from Tooru’s determined face to Hajime’s furrowed brow and brings himself to his feet. “I’m trying to do what’s best for this village. It’s the reason why I’m here.” Shigeru puts a hand on Hajime’s shoulder and he’s relieved when the boy doesn’t shrug away from him.

“Thank you,” Shigeru says, “for helping me. I know it must have been… shocking.” Kyoutani shifts and yelps a bit, almost like he wasn’t expecting the pain moving would bring. Shigeru wonders if he’s fallen asleep. “I think it’s time for you two to go.”

“What?” Hajime gapes.

“No way,” Tooru pouts.

“I have to make sure he’s alright,” Shigeru argues, gesturing to Kyoutani. “I don’t know what’ll happen, I need to make sure you boys are—”

“Can’t we do this together?” Tooru asks, grabbing the corner of his cloak. “Like the witch bottles?”

“And you’ve got a lotta explaining to do,” Hajime says stubbornly. “You… you talked about it like you… _knew_ it.”

Shigeru bites the inside of his lip, thinking. He regrets letting the boys know as much as they do now but, if they want to know more, then the best Shigeru can do is to help them gain that knowledge safely.

“I do,” Shigeru answers reluctantly. “Know it, I mean. _Him_.” The boys blink up at him blankly. “It’s a long story, but…” Shigeru sighs. “You have to keep today a secret. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Immediately, they nod.

Shigeru sighs before heading upstairs to find his grimoire. He’s got a _lot_ of explaining to do.

* * *

 

It only takes a week for Kyoutani’s side to heal. Shigeru’s relieved because he was terrified that Kyoutani would be left with a nasty scar… and because that week was spent _constantly_ making sure the shifter didn’t wander too far off or injure himself further and urging him to _please_ not shift until they knew for sure that he wouldn’t cause more harm by doing so.

It’s early in the morning when Shigeru checks the dog’s side, finding a patch of slightly shorter black fur instead. Still, the revelation takes Shigeru aback.

“Good as new,” he affirms shakily, pulling away from Kyoutani’s side. Shigeru can’t even tell him to _take it easy_ before the dog’s hopping off the bed and shaking out its fur like he was just doused with a bucket of water.

In a blur, Kyoutani the man is drawing himself up to his full height, a wild grin pulling at his lips. There’s a giddy second where Kyoutani stumbles towards the window and grabs at his simple black cloak that Yahaba found for him, holding it in his hands almost like he was content to _feel it_ for now. The moment shatters when Kyoutani’s smile falls and he starts to pull his arm through one of the cloak’s sleeves.

“Didja really have to pour _booze_ on me?” he barks, glaring at Shigeru.

“Would you rather run the risk of dying?” Shigeru questions back, hoping his frown isn’t as pronounce as it feels.

“I woulda been _fine_ —”

“Fine, huh?” Shigeru cuts, raising his eyebrows. He gets to his feet and delights in the fact that he’s still a bit taller than the other man. “Why were you collapsed at my door, then?”

“I… well,” Kyoutani tries and fails, hanging his head before huffing and looking at something roughly around Shigeru’s shoulder. “I didn’t want you to worry, so I…”

“So you nearly died to let me know you were okay?” Shigeru fills in. Kyoutani flinches at the jab. “Look,” Shigeru sighs, crossing the room and hesitating before putting his hand on Kyoutani’s shoulder. Even with the cloak covering his skin, Shigeru can feel his _warmth_. “It’s fine, alright? I’m _glad_ I found you.”

Kyoutani finally meets his eye and, for the first time, smiles at him.

“You’re lying,” he murmurs, shaking his head slightly.

“I’m not,” Shigeru returns, “but think what you will. I gotta open the shop for the day.”

“The kids comin’?” Kyoutani asks, following him as Shigeru down the stairs.

“Don’t they always?”

“They better not pull at my ears again,” Kyoutani grumbles before catching himself. Shigeru guffaws at the way Kyoutani’s cheeks redden with the aftermath of the words.

“They might be a little stunned now that you’re _you_ again,” Shigeru says through his laughter, “but no, I don’t think they’ll pull at your ears.”

Shigeru throws the front door open just as Hajime and Tooru are halfway up the road. They instantly break out into a run, smiles on their faces as they latch onto Shigeru, breathless.

“I was first!” Tooru shouts, punching his fist into the air.

“No, I was!” Hajime argues, glaring at the other boy.

Their arguing would have escalated if Kyoutani didn’t butt in, saying, “It’s a tie.”

There’s a split-second of glee on Hajime’s face, and bitterness on Tooru’s, until they realize that the voice they heard _wasn’t_ Shigeru’s. Their eyes flick to the side, finding Kyoutani where he lingers a couple steps behind Shigeru. It’s almost comical, the way their expressions slacken with recognition.

Tooru chirps, “You’re better!” at the same time that Hajime says, “You look the same.”

Shigeru can’t contain his laughter as Kyoutani smirks at them both.

“Yeah, well, you’re both not wrong,” the shifter says, shrugging. Tooru absolutely beams, darting over and hugging Kyoutani. The man stiffens at the contact before melting, patting the boy’s wild brown hair.

“Wait,” Hajime breaths. The boy’s eyes snap from Shigeru to Kyoutani as he asks, “If you’re better now, does… that mean you’re leaving?”

Shigeru feels his stomach sink lower and lower in the silence that follows. Hajime had asked the question Shigeru was wondering and didn’t have the heart to ask when Kyoutani could finally give him an answer. But there it is, out in the open, and Shigeru almost wants to push all three of them out of the shop just so that he doesn’t have to hear the answer, because a part of him deep down already knows it.

Kyoutani would leave, probably after one last meal, and continue travelling to who knows where, never looking back. The thought makes Shigeru want to _shatter_.

“Leaving?” Kyoutani scoffs. “No,” Kyoutani continues, and there’s a softness in his voice that Shigeru can’t fathom. When his gaze flicks up to stare at the shifter, their eyes meet.

“I think I’ll stick around and help protect the village,” Kyoutani says, smiling. Shigeru feels his heart leap into his throat. “If that’s okay with you?” he asks, jutting his chin out towards Shigeru.

All he can do is nod.

* * *

 

The village thrived for years to come, even after Shigeru and Kyoutani passed on. The new cunning folk, Hajime and Tooru, kept their memory alive, telling stories of the cunning man and the Black Dog who still happily protected the village, together.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all so much for reading! please tell me what you think, or come talk to me on tumblr (hijackedhoneybeeez) or twitter (honey_beeez05)!  
> once again, check out the other amazing works in this zine!  
> have a good one! know youre loved!


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